Reflect back. Face forward.

December is here! That means the end of the year is right around the corner. Are you ready to tackle 2015?

I know you just got your Christmas decorations up. But now is the time (and not in January) to figure out what worked this past year, what changes need to be implemented, and what projects are on the table for the year ahead.

That’s right. You should be planning your whole year, right now.

There was a time when I had no idea what was going to happen from week to week, let alone year to year. Planning a year in advance is actually quite freeing. It not only lets me know when I’m doing certain thing but when I’m not doing things. For example, I have a new play development workshop in the spring and I’ll be writing a new play in the summer/fall. By planning those events in my calendar now, I’ll be able to see when I have free time and when I’ll have to say no to new projects.

It’s not perfect, and there are always the snags that life throws in. I had a number of different plans for 2014 – which was actually my biggest misstep – too many projects. I’ll be amending that for 2015.

Reflect Back

Reflect back on your writing life in 2014. What happened? What were your successes? What failures can you learn from and change? Did you take on too much? Did you plan to finish something and life got in the way?

Face Forward

Now what do you want to happen in 2015? Don’t get bogged down by what you didn’t do or didn’t accomplish this year. Face forward. Look ahead. Where are you going? What do you want to do? What are five steps you can take to make this happen?